Terror Trends Bulletin

by Christopher W. Holton

State legislation known as “Andy’s Law” stiffens criminal penalties for terrorism and material support for terrorism.

It is needed on the state level because our bureaucratized counterterrorism apparatus on the federal level is routinely reluctant to bring terrorism charges in cases that are clearly terrorism. The law also creates a civil cause of action empowering victims of terrorism to sue in state court those who provide material support and aid those who commit acts of terrorism. Andy’s Law has already passed into law in Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, North Carolina and Tennessee.

It is called Andy’s Law after Private Andy Long, who was gunned down on June 1, 2009 by a Jihadist named Abdulhakim Muhammed outside an Army Recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas, as reported in the documentary, “Losing Our Sons.”

In this undated photo provided by the U.S. Army in Little Rock, Ark., Tuesday, June 2, 2009, Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway, Ark., is shown Friday, May 15, 2009. Long was killed outside an Army-Navy Career Center in a west Little Rock shopping center on Monday, June 1. (AP Photo/U.S. Army)

One state in which Andy’s Law will not be passed into law in 2016 evidently is Florida.

That’s because the state’s House Speaker, Steve Crisafulli, killed the Andy’s Law bill that was authored by Senator Joe Negron and Representative Mike Hill.

Prior to Crisafulli’s action, the bill had passed 3 committees in the Florida Senate, 2 subcommittees of the House and a full committee of the House without a single opposing vote.

It then passed the full Senate 35-0.

Andy’s Law Sponsor Senator Joe Negron

At the 11th hour, at Crisafulli’s specific direction, the bill was blocked from a vote on the House floor.

Crisafulli is a prime example of a generation of establishment Republican politicians who have failed the nation in terms of making national security a top priority as President Reagan did.

The question remains: why did Crisafulli block a measure that has sailed through state legislatures elsewhere and had unanimous bipartisan support in the Florida legislature?

The only known opponents of Andy’s Law are Muslim Brotherhood groups, as identified in the largest terrorism financing prosecution in U.S. history, the U.S. v. the Holy Land Foundation.

In that trial, groups such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) and others were named as Muslim Brotherhood fronts and unindicted co-conspirators in that prosecution.

All of these well-funded groups and their allies are active in Florida. They are the only known opponents of Andy’s Law. This raises serious questions about the political terrain in the Sunshine State to say the least when a prominent Republican leader would unilaterally kill a popular counterterrorism measure opposed by nefarious elements of the Muslim Brotherhood.